Church Leaders Condemn Jim Bakker at Convention

OKLAHOMA CITY —  Members and leaders of Jim Bakker’s denomination condemned the fallen evangelist Friday for his lavish life style and for bringing “an emphasis on pleasure, prosperity and personal gain” into the religious community.

“We are deeply saddened, ashamed and repentant before God for these problems in our church family,” said the Rev. G. Raymond Carlson, reading a statement from the executive presbytery of the Assemblies of God to a hushed national convention an estimated 15,000 people.

“Sadly, the convictions of holiness and personal piety have been eclipsed with self-interests and prosperity,” the statement from the 13-member executive body said.

TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had pursued sexual misconduct allegations against Bakker, told a luncheon that the furor nearly caused him to give up the ministry.

“I’d never been to the bottom so far,” he said, noting that contributions fell sharply and accusing the news media of trying to “kill and destroy him.”

Swaggart, an Assemblies of God minister, said that as he read from the book of Joshua, “holiness came all over me,” drove off “every demon,” and God said to stop “moaning and groaning.”

Swaggart said he then was assured then his ministry would be “bigger than ever before.” Carlson, the 2.1-million-member denomination’s general superintendent, said Bakker and his ex-PTL network colleague, Richard Dortch, spurned the church inquiry and their rights to appeal.

Bakker quit his television ministry in March after admitting a sexual encounter with a church secretary, and the church in May revoked his ministerial credentials for adultery and alleged homosexual acts.

Dortch was deposed as a clergyman for arranging payments to the woman.